Friday, May 30, 2008

7 7 3 3 1 6

Starting pitcher:
M.C. O'Connor

103 pitches, 29 batters, 10 groundouts, 5 flyouts. One bad inning, the third, 1B, 2B, 3B, 2B, 3 runs scored. Of course, he earned another ND. The mean Matt Cain start (74 IP, 36 ER) this year has been 6 IP and 3 ER, the so-called "quality start," yet M.C. has achieved that only 5 times in 12 chances. Inconsistency and a lack of control have plagued our boy all season. A simple look at his first 11 starts shows how he's pitched relative to the last two seasons.

I like to think he is underperforming over this 1/3 of the season and that he will go through a similar stretch on the "other side of the line." Teams are slugging .421 vs. M.C. in '08, fifty points higher than his career mark. Teams are putting the ball in the air more. A quick glance at the GO/FO ratio for 2007 shows 0.93 (230 GO to 247 FO). After 12 starts in 2008 it is 66/99 or 0.67. It was 0.60 (56/94) before tonight's strong effort.

7 comments:

Matt pitched well but I must remind everyone that the puds are a TERRIBLE offensive team. Worse than us! (That says alot; we sucked wind the entire second half of that game...I worry this month will be UGLY when Molina and Rowand come back to earth.)So I have to admit I was hoping for even more... a dominant performance that would be the start of that nice streak you mention. Oh well, maybe next time. Needless to say I sense great things tomorrow for the Linkster...

Horowitz instead of Nate? I guess it makes sense. How come we have Burriss and Denker both up??? And ...I know this won't be popular...but Omar must go. If there is ANY hope of getting something for him it should be SOON before he plays himself out of the lineup. You know a farewell tour of the AL is coming so why not start it NOW? It really sunk in yesterday during his ceremony that I don't consider Omar a "true" Giant. His legacy came from somewhere else. What did he accomplish here, except longevity? I loved watching him play but we NEED a modern type SS.

Maybe we should trade Cain. I happen to think he's a big stiff who never wins, but apparently many still consider him quite valuable, so we could get a couple of mediocre position players for him. This would be in keeping with the tradition of Giants trades of the past.

jc - I'm willing to keep Omar. As a manager. Or someday manager. Does he want that? I have no idea. Otherwise, yes, if he has any value whatsoever, ship him along.

brobob - wins are not descriptive of a pitcher's skills. Nor, really, is era, although for a starter, it used to be of some value. Take the big eunuch (please). Lots of K's but his win total is somewhere around 200.

Two complaints about last night's game - 1) Bochy should have had enough class to pull Yabu after the triple play. That way his line would have read 1 ip, 0 h, 0 r, 0 er, 1 np. I mean, we lost the game anyway, right? 2) Giants swinging at anything thrown up there in the 9th through 12th (after which I lost patience and went to bed). Were any of the Giants' Ks on more than 4 pitches? Plate discipline out the window, and I mean pitches that were at their ankles, way outside, whatever.

I thought a lot about the Puds being El Stinko with the bats, and expected M.C. to do well, and he did--for six innings. He seems to have these lapses--like the third--where he leaves the ball out over the fat of the plate. That ball by Giles was blasted--a HR everywhere but our yard. A fat, fat pitch. But M.C. only walked one guy and finished seven with a reasonable pitch count. Bad team or not, you want that from your starters. Consistency is tough for all our young guys (except you-know-who). I'm willing to ride out the rough patches with a 23-year old who can throw 95+. He's going to reach the 100-start mark by the end of this season, and I think we'll have the real picture emerging. Then again, a guy like Dave Stewart didn't become a star until he was 30 years old! Matt might put it all together when he's 25--two years from now.

Yeah, I know, I was just kidding. Then we'd have to rename the blog, and ooh boy would I miss that string of numbers as a headline after each of the big guy's starts.I'm actually just peeved at Jon for saying we should trade away the guys I like. First Molina and now Omar, and right after the big love fest for him yesterday.God forbid I should ever say anything positive about Durham or Aurelia. That would be RMC heresy.PS' I'm writing this with the radio on- Misch just got out #1 after giving up 3 runs already. What a useless sack of crap he is. Oh, now it's 4-0. Swell.

BTW, you are correct, any positive comments related to any player over 28.5 years old will be dealt with harshly. MOC will call you his "bhoyo" or something just as horrible...TRADE 'EM ALL heeheeheeheehee